Carl & Beth Cochran named Pioneer King and Queen

Beth and Carl Cochran will serve as the Pioneer King and Queen during the Pioneer Day festivities, which will be Sept. 14-15 in Florence.
(Charlotte Burrous/ Daily Record)

Florence -- If there is anything going on in the area, they are usually right in the middle of it.

It's no wonder that Carl and Beth Cochran were selected as this year's Pioneer King and Queen to serve at this year's Pioneer Day festivities.

They said they could not believe it.

"I thought they made a mistake," Carl said. "We've been gone a long time."

Although they were gone many years, the couple made it a point to come down for Pioneer Day and to visit family members, as well.

Born Aug. 18, 1940, in Florence at her grandmother's house, Beth attended Emmerson School then entered the first seventh grade class at the middle school before graduating from Florence High School in 1958. Daughter of Edna Mae Ham-Holt, who died in 1956 and Carl E. Holt, who died in 1995, Beth said her mother's parents, Alonzo and Ella Ham, farmed acreage in Kansas before moving to Colorado, searching for better work right after her mother was born. Her father's parents owned Holt Mine in Southfield, where her father, Carl grew up, working for the mine.

Her husband Carl was born April 2, 1937, to Marion and Lily Cochran in Penrose. His parents grew up in west central Kansas before moving to Penrose in the 1930s then to Florence in the early 1940s. Because his father was a day laborer, the family lived in towns all over the region until 1946 when his father opened and operated Cochran Welding at his home in Florence, creating unicycles for the Pioneer Day Parade.

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He also repaired equipment for the mines and trucking companies, as well as worked on heavy equipment. In his youth, Carl attended McCandless Elementary School, then graduated from FHS in 1956.

The couple married Jan. 3, 1958, then moved to Cañon City, where he owned and operated Carl's TV for about seven years. From there, the couple moved to Colorado Springs, where he worked as service manager with Colorado Springs Music Company for more than 30 years. Then he worked part-time as a stagehand before being promoted to assistant business agent and sound engineer at various venues, including Broadmoor, Pikes Peak Center and City Auditorium.

While raising their children, Beth stayed home with them and served as a room mother, in the PTA and other school activities. She also got involved with a Brownies Scout Troop and went to leadership training with the Girl Scouts while in Colorado Springs. Once the children were older, Beth and Carl started a business, where she took the orders and ran the shop, and Carl traveled the state, selling wholesale gifts and souvenirs, which they did for more than eight years.

The couple moved back to Florence in 2003. Since then, they have gotten involved with various organizations, including the Cañon Rose Acoustic Society and a festival in Westcliffe.

Carl and Beth have four daughters and a son, 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

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